Slothy ambled across the plains, sniffing the air for exciting scents. She had seen a small copse of trees nearby and could smell water. She was planning on having a quick swim before she took her nap.

Way Way always ensured she was clean, and her humans gave her regular brushings. But nothing beats a swim.

The sun had warmed her coat nicely by the time she entered the shady area beneath the trees.

A funny-shaped stone was lying across her path. It looked a bit like a human, but really wide and short. She patted it a couple of times with her foot and gave it a sniff.

Nothing interesting, just old stone.

She could clearly smell the little lake now, and the freshwater made her nose twitch. She stepped over the strange stone, seeing others in the woods around the area. They seemed to lead to a shadowy place, but she ignored it in favor of the lake.

The muddy shore squelched beneath her feet as she walked into the water. She soaked in the shallows for a few minutes, ducking her head beneath the water and drinking deeply.

A dark shape moved in the depths, and Slothy dove off the shallows, diving down as she swam after it with strong strokes. The Shape swirled ahead of her and shot towards her.

Something long and strong wrapped itself around her, trying to pull her deeper into the lake.

Slothy obliged, swimming down and snapping her jaws closed on the head as she felt her paws touch the bottom of the lake.

Water fountained up as Slothy broke the surface, rolling on her back and luxuriating in the sun as she munched on the Greater Lake Eel that had tried to attack her.

She munched her way slowly through the huge creature, her powerful jaws snapping the delicate bones effortlessly. She decided she liked the creature and made a promise to herself to visit more lakes.

Once the meal was over, it was definitely nap time. Slothy pulled herself out of the lake and onto the shore, deciding to find somewhere shady to nap away the afternoon. Her overfull belly swung side to side as she sleepily wandered into the woods, heading for the shadowy area she had seen earlier.

Passing more of the strange stones, Slothy made herself chuckle as she nudged them over. The little stones on top kept falling off. The trees closed in, providing a lovely cool, shady region for her to nap in.

She sniffed at the stone archway, but it smelled of nothing, so she ignored it and curled up for her nap.

Her mind drifted as she slipped in and out of sleep. She dreamed of food and cuddles from her humans, especially the bony one. She liked him, they went hunting together and found more humans, green ones! They brought her secret treats all the time whenever no one was looking.

It was amazing how much food they managed to sneak her, especially when they had to avoid all the other people sneaking her treats and cuddles.

She was just drifting off to sleep when she felt something jabbing at her foot and opened her eyes.

A humanoid was stabbing her foot with a small spear. It was a pale green, but not like the good ones. Slothy searched her mind before finding the word… Goblins.

She snorted, telling it to go away. It gibbered and ran off into the archway.

Slothy huffed and tried to get back to sleep.

A few minutes later, she jerked awake as something jabbed at her eyelid. She whipped her head, feeling something fall off her neck. Suddenly things were jabbing her all over.

Slothy surged up, looking around at all the little humanoids. She roared and reared up, telling them she was napping and to come back later. Several of them wet themselves and ran.

More of the things came out of the archway, shoving sticks and bits of metal at her.

Slothy roared again, irritated, and swiped a single paw through their ranks.

Blood flowed, and several of the goblins fell to the floor dead. Slothy huffed. She would need to find a new nap spot now.

The largest goblin she had seen in her life came charging forward, waving a giant metal hammer in both hands, slamming it down on her toes.

Slothy howled in anger, feeling like she had stubbed her toe, and the goblins laughed at her.

Slothy felt the anger and affront rush through her, and she slammed a foot down on the giant goblin, smushing him beneath her paw. The goblins screamed and ran into the archway, throwing things at her.

Slothy was a princess, she knew. Everybody told her so. And these disgusting creatures interrupted her nap, hurt her paw, and laughed at her! Then, they threw things from in their little archway.

Slothy charged, swiping the archway aside as she forced her way inside. The goblins screamed and died, while some retreated into a large tunnel beneath the archway.

She tried to force her way in, and they stopped and jeered at her.

Slothy roared and began to dig.

Her huge claws ripped apart the stones as she dug, forcing the earth away and kicking it behind her as she dug her way along the tunnel. The terrified Goblins backed up further and further, But Slothy didn’t intend to let even one of them get away.

The goblins hesitated, then ran through another archway, vanishing into a swirling darkness. With one last swipe, Slothy stuck her head into the arch.

Bastion of the Iron Hand.

You are too large to enter.

Shrink to fit…

Y/N?

Slothy hesitated before remembering the sneering, jeering Goblins. She accepted, feeling a necklace appear around her neck.

==============

Slothy stepped through into a stone-lined room. Shapes were carved into the walls, but she ignored them. Her humans may care about such things, but Slothy didn’t. What she cared about was those Goblins, and she followed their scent.

The path wound through several rooms and tunnels. Some of them had dead goblins in them. A couple had fallen into pits; others were cut into pieces. They were weak creatures, unlike her.

Occasionally a blade would swing across a hallway, or the floor would go out from beneath her, but she ignored them. The blades bounced off her thick armored fur, and the floor never managed to drop out from under more than one foot.

Only a couple of Goblins were left by the time she found the stairs down. The scent of Goblin was stronger, so she followed it down below. They were there; she could see them.

The Goblins crouched behind a pillar while a strange metal beast walked up and down the room. It had worn a deep groove in the floor over the years.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Stupid beast, Slothy huffed; why not move to a new bit?

She roared a challenge at the goblins as she emerged from the stairs, only to have the strange metal beast rush her.

Slothy squeaked in surprise, ducking a metallic orb that the thing swung at her. She bellowed a warning, telling it to go away… and it kicked her.

Slothy felt the blow, but it barely registered. She slammed her shoulder into the creature, knocking it back. She charged, and it fell on its back. It kicked at her, striking her full stomach with its metal ball.

She slammed her paws down, feeling the metal buckle. She hit it over and over until, at last, it stilled.

She roared her victory as she stood on the corpse, slamming it into the floor a couple more times.

The damn Goblins had run away again. Such rude creatures.

She followed the scent deeper into the complex. The next room had a series of smaller creatures, fast and armed with sharp stabbing feet. They looked a little bit like metal spiders but with fewer legs. Slothy spent a few minutes playing with them, rolling over their little bodies while she huffed a laugh as they tickled.

She ran out of her new toys and moved on after the Goblins. The next hallway was full of the dumb traps.

She grumbled to herself as she made her way along, getting irritated and grabbing one of the blades in her teeth and tearing it free. A clonk noise came from the wall, so she hit it a few times until it stopped.

The Giant Sloth Bear was quite happy to see the little fountain in the next room. The water smelled fresh and clean, so she drank deeply until the little fountain was empty. A slow trickle of water began to refill it as she turned away.

There were still goblins to hunt.

Slothy noticed a pattern as she carried on in search of the last remaining goblins. Each hall ended with a room. Each room had a metal thing in it. She would kill it, then move on. And the pattern continued.

It was quite fun, but she still wished she could just have her nap instead. Two giant metal monsters in the latest room had been a bit challenging; she had to hold one down with her paws while she kicked the other to death.

She had liked the funny noise it made as it fell to bits.

The other one made it now as she slammed her paws on its head again.

Slothy huffed and moved on.

She found another staircase, half overgrown with plants, and cheered up. She liked plants.

Well, better than stone, anyway.

You could eat plants, and some of them were tasty.

============

The third floor was a garden full of plants and flowers. Slothy huffed appreciatively as she caught one of the two remaining goblins hiding in a small shrub in the corner of one room.

She slapped it to death and turned to finish her hunt.

There was a hole in the wall here, showing a small, rough tunnel dug into the wall.

She sniffed it, smelling some kind of humanoid, but not a goblin. She ignored it and carried on.

After another drink from a fountain that was hidden behind a tree, Slothy found another of the metal monsters. Some kind of plant had grown through it, tearing it apart where it had stood.

She moved on, stopping to sniff at the occasional plant that looked tasty. Another room, with a metal guardian, made even tougher by the vines wrapped around it. She tore the vines off and slapped it until it fell over.

The other humanoid smell was there faintly, older than the Goblin smell. But it was getting fresher, and it smelled afraid.

She caught sight of her quarry at the end of the next hall. The goblin gibbered and dove out of sight.

Slothy charged after it.

She had found where the plants were coming from, Slothy realized as she looked at the pulsing light coming from a large bundle of vines in the center of the room. An enormous flower sat atop the vines, long white petals almost reaching the roof.

Slothy slid to a stop as she entered the room, watching the struggling goblin being dragged toward the flower. As the goblin neared it, the flower leaned over, revealing the thornlike teeth ringing its maw.

The Goblin was chucked in, screaming as it was torn apart.

Slothy felt vines wrapping around her front feet and pulled. The vines tore as the flower spun to face her. More vines came for her, wrapping around her legs and neck.

Slothy roared in defiance, digging her long claws into the stone floor to keep herself still.

More and more vines reached for her, and she was lifted from the floor. Slothy thrashed as she was dragged through the air. Her claws and teeth thrashed at the vines, tearing them apart in bunches.

It wasn’t enough.

She was dropped into the maw of the flower… and tore it apart in her rage. Her claws glowed as she dug through the thick vines, pushing deeper and deeper into the plant until she saw the glowing heart of it. Pulsing with green energy.

Her head flashed out, biting the core out of the thing and swallowing reflexively.

Heart of the Plains Ingested…

New abilities gained…

Slothy huffed as the plant fell apart around her. The rude plant had tried to eat her! She ate things; that was how it worked. They didn’t eat her.

Stupid flower.

She made sure to remember to ask Way Way what the new abilities were when she got home.

Slothy remembered the Goblin dying and was satisfied they had all paid for their insult. She was about to make her way back out to her napping spot when she felt it…

A vine was still alive. She snuffled through the dead plants until she found it. She was about to smush it when it cowered.

She hesitated, feeling her command over it. Slothy chuffed happily.

Slothy had a pet!

She immediately told it to climb onto her. And it did, winding itself around one of her front legs and forming a little necklace. She searched the room for more pets but found nothing at first.

She was just about to call off the search when she smelled the humanoid smell again. It was coming from behind a door set in the room's wall.

She swiped it aside and looked inside.

A humanoid, smaller than usual but quite wide, was cowering in the room's far corner.

“Ahh!” It screamed, “What the fuck are ya?” It tried to back even further away, “Is there no end to the horrors of this cursed place?”

Slothy chuffed happily. She had two pets now.

She reached into the room, scooping out the humanoid and popping him on her back.

“Get away, ya big bastard!” It squeaked again, scrambling off her back and trying to run away.

Slothy shook her head sadly. It was obviously a bit stupid, but she couldn’t let it run around in here. It was dangerous.

She lunged forward and gently picked it up in her mouth.

It punched and kicked at her, and she growled at her new pet, telling it off for being a bad pet.

It stopped struggling.

Slothy chuffed happily and started to make her way out of the place.

“Let me down, ya daft thing!” Her pet kept saying.

It screamed as the traps triggered until, eventually, it stopped.

“Gods Below, what kind of creature are ya?” It asked.

Slothy couldn’t answer; her mouth was full.

“I hope you aren’t carrying me back to your cubs or sommat?” The thing asked eventually as they made their way up to the first floor.

She growled.

“Okay, okay.” It sighed. “Just askin’.”

It squeaked a few times when they went out through that archway, and Slothy asked the vine to remove the fancy necklace thing. She grew back to her full size, and her new pet screamed and went limp.

She could feel it breathing, so she just shrugged and continued out of the tunnel she had dug and into the shady forest again.

It took her a few minutes to find a new place to nap, and she had to stop by the lake for a drink. She held her new pet on the floor with one paw while she drank.

“So what are ye gonna do with me then?” The thing squeaked.

She thought it might be thirsty, so she dunked it under the water for a moment. It came up sputtering and cursing.

She tilted her head, trying to figure it out. Eventually, it stopped screaming at her, and she huffed again. Its humans could teach her how to take care of it. But that was for later. For now, it was nap time.

She lay down on the bank, pulling her new pet into a hug and getting her vine pet to wrap around it and hold it still.

Now it couldn’t wander off and get in trouble while she slept.

It yelled for a bit until she growled again, telling it to take a nap.

===============

“Awake are ye?” Her pet asked as she yawned after her nap.

She grunted she was.

“So, uh, can I go yet?” It asked.

Slothy growled and picked it up in her mouth.

“Jus’ me luck,” It sounded grumpy. “Get stuck in some forgotten bloody weapons lab only to become packed lunch for this big bastard.”

Slothy chuffed a laugh. It was a funny pet.

She ambled back across the plains, her new pet hanging from her mouth as she walked.

It stopped grumbling eventually.

“What’s that thing?” It asked, pointing at the Waystation.

Slothy rumbled happily.

“Oh, you’re from here, aye?” It asked. “Thank the Gods! Someone can rescue me after all!”

As they got closer, her humans were milling around. The green ones. They pointed and laughed at her pet as she strolled up.

“Gods! Orcs!” Her pet struggled. “I’m done for!”

“Relax, little dwarf,” A female voice called. “Slothy won’t hurt you.”

“And neither will we,” A male voice laughed.

“Oh, aye?” Her pet called as they ambled up the drawbridge.

She spat her pet at the feet of her favorite human, placing a protective paw on it.

“What have you got there, Slothy?” They asked.

“Ahh, fuck me, it’s an Undead!” Her pet wailed as Bud laughed.

“Welcome to the Waystation, Master Dwarf.”